Analysing episode 2 of webtoons
to help me understand how i should structure my webtoon’s episode 2, i need to look at others as examples...
So after looking at the structure of episode 2 of Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe, i found that the structure seem pretty simple, and not a lot happens yet the plot does move forward. there is 35 panels aprox in the episode.
https://www.webtoons.com/en/romance/lore-olympus/episode-2/viewer?title_no=1320&episode_no=2
in summary: Episode 2′s main purpose in Lore Olympus is for Hades to meet Persephone, which i assume to be the inciting incident of the romance series. The episode starts with Persephone (main character) feeling uncomfortable in her mini dress before attending a ‘prom of sorts’ and being encouraged by her friend. Then switches point of view to hades, being fed up at the prom because he has no date (got dumped in the first episode), someone knocks a drink out of Persephone's hand and she falls over, this is where Hades meets her. Then the episode ends. so i dont think this follows the 3 acts grid system structure but instead a very simple: set up - incident - and then cliff hanger. I think the entire series follows the 3 act structure as an outline, but not the individual episodes.
Next i analysed a thriller webtoon called Rot&Ruin. Episode 2 has 97 panels (thrillers have more panels as you need more to build suspense i guess) and the structure is a little more complex than Lore olympus but still pretty simple.
In summary: The main purpose is to set the young character off to look for a job in this ‘zombie’ alternate world reality. which I'm assuming the job will end up becoming the inciting incident.
This episode starts with the main character; a teen boy, ‘testing’ a metal fence around the perimeter of the village or town which is protecting the people from zombies outside the fence. he is bored on his ‘job’ so he ends up getting attacked by a zombie which breaks down the fence. he then looses that job. Next scene is in a tavern of sorts, and the character is now with 3 other friends all similar age, discussing about jobs and the main character introduces some sort of hatred towards his own brother. He seems to look up to 2 very bulky warrior type men who enter the tavern, and brag about how they beat up and killed some zombies. I'm sensing this may be foreshadowing, perhaps those men will end up being dislikeable and the main character will then start to look up to his brother instead. At the end of the episode the character has flashbacks to when his friend died because he wasn't able to keep a job, he then looks through a list of possible jobs and all are crossed out except for erosion artist. episode ends there.
structure seems to be: Set up - focus point - inciting incident (the flashback of friends death) - turning point (decides to do the final job on the list, so he doesn't end up like the friend)
maybe when I'm structuring the episodes with the grid system i can use the focus points and turning points as the main form of structuring. for example episode 2 would be SET UP - FOCUS POINT - TURNING POINT/INCIDENT (the turning point being the cliff hanger or question which gets answered in the next episode)
ill try just using focus points and turning points for the 2nd episode grid system and use the inciting incident when it appears in the entire series plot, as there isn't inciting incidents in every episode. (my inciting incident is the sisters death which occurs in episode 1)